Change in Gender Roles over Time Essay Example
The Evolving World of Gender Equality
Gender roles in America throughout the 1900s have arguably undergone their most drastic shifts than any other century. While a shift in a mindset that focused more in equality was marked by the passage of women’s suffrage in 1920, the Popular Front movement that occurred from 1890 through 1934 and amid the Great Depression was an often overlooked, although an important, turning point for civil rights as a whole. With the start of the World War II in 1939 and men fighting overseas, the economic stimulus of wartime created jobs for women while men fought overseas. What was it that gave these women the power and courage to stand up for what they thought was right? How did they begin to transform what most considered a perfectly expectable part of society? By looking at writings, photos, and other works by prominent progressive women over the last century, we can get a real perspective on how gender roles have come so far. This paper aims at discovering how gender roles have progressed, what changed them, and who the main proponents of this change were. While social and economic pressures clearly set the path for changing gender roles, discontentment among women with their social status and the push by particular women from the ground up within the greater context of a civil rights overhaul set the precedent for a more equal America and shifting gender roles.
Theoretical Perspective # 1
Feminist theory is the first theoretical perspective which I have chose to research. It addresses gender inequalities and puts forth a way to address these differences (Giddons 2012). The focus will be on two different sub categories of the feminist theory, which are liberal feminism and radical feminism. Liberal feminists do not blame men for their oppression; rather they blame it on a larger system where separate factors such as the media and discrimination in the work place are to blame. Liberal feminists actively strive for
Gender roles in America throughout the 1900s have arguably undergone their most drastic shifts than any other century. While a shift in a mindset that focused more in equality was marked by the passage of women’s suffrage in 1920, the Popular Front movement that occurred from 1890 through 1934 and amid the Great Depression was an often overlooked, although an important, turning point for civil rights as a whole. With the start of the World War II in 1939 and men fighting overseas, the economic stimulus of wartime created jobs for women while men fought overseas. What was it that gave these women the power and courage to stand up for what they thought was right? How did they begin to transform what most considered a perfectly expectable part of society? By looking at writings, photos, and other works by prominent progressive women over the last century, we can get a real perspective on how gender roles have come so far. This paper aims at discovering how gender roles have progressed, what changed them, and who the main proponents of this change were. While social and economic pressures clearly set the path for changing gender roles, discontentment among women with their social status and the push by particular women from the ground up within the greater context of a civil rights overhaul set the precedent for a more equal America and shifting gender roles.
Theoretical Perspective # 1
Feminist theory is the first theoretical perspective which I have chose to research. It addresses gender inequalities and puts forth a way to address these differences (Giddons 2012). The focus will be on two different sub categories of the feminist theory, which are liberal feminism and radical feminism. Liberal feminists do not blame men for their oppression; rather they blame it on a larger system where separate factors such as the media and discrimination in the work place are to blame. Liberal feminists actively strive for